The first 2 are durations, the last 2 are intervals. Remark: whole note and half note have nothing to do with whole tone and half tone. You will hear the metronome count 4 beats before it starts.
Listen to a sound sample of the whole note, half note and 2 quarter notes as in the staff above. And, logically, a quarter note has a duration of 1 beat. The duration of a half tone is half of that of a whole tone, so 2 beats. In 4/4 time, this corresponds to a whole measure, from where ‘whole note’ has its name. The whole note has a duration of 4 beats. You can see them displayed in the staff below. Some basic note lengths (or note values) are the whole note, the half note and the quarter note. Notation of note lengths in the staff Whole note, half note and quarter note When you clap your hands or tap your toes when you listen to a piece of music, you do that normally on every beat. You can measure note lengths in number of beats but this can also be in fractions of a beat.īut, what is exactly a beat? What is a beat?Ī beat could be defined as the basic rhythmic unit in music. Note lengths are important in music: a note can be played (very) short, (very) long and everything in between. You can watch this lesson in the video below, or read at your ease under the video. 2 Note lengths – Whole notes, half notes, quarter notes and much more
